[NOVEL] Emily Wilde's Compendium of Lost Tales by Heather Fawcett

I hope it's the last book. At least Heather Fawcett said there will be three in total, good number. And not because I didn't like it, it's a pretty cozy read, if you want one of those. But partially I felt like, well, whatever.

Emily Wilde has spent her life studying faeries. A renowned dryadologist, she has documented hundreds of species of Folk in her Encyclopaedia of Faeries. Now she is about to embark on her most dangerous academic project studying the inner workings of a faerie realm—as its queen.

Along with her former academic rival—now fiancé—the dashing and mercurial Wendell Bambleby, Emily is immediately thrust into the deadly intrigues of Faerie as the two of them seize the throne of Wendell’s long-lost kingdom, which Emily finds a beautiful nightmare filled with scholarly treasures.

Emily has been obsessed with faerie stories her entire life, but at first she feels as ill-suited to Faerie as she did to the mortal How can an unassuming scholar such as herself pass for a queen? Yet there is little time to settle in, for Wendell’s murderous stepmother has placed a deadly curse upon the land before vanishing without a trace. It will take all of Wendell’s magic—and Emily’s knowledge of stories—to unravel the mystery before they lose everything they hold dear.

Emily Wilde. Book 3

I was waiting for this book to come out, so I can finally put a final dot here. 

But Emily Wilde was unlucky since I read it to cope with 10/10 anxiety, so I could get distracted (didn't help). Instead I just rushed through this book and I'm afraid it won't be enough to give it justice, but I'll try.

We find Emily and Wendell finally travelling to his realm. Emily is uncomfortable in her new role, but she copes. Wendell is still the same but somehow different.

Not entirely upon arrival they find out that the queen poisoned the realm with a curse. The land will slowly will be engulfed and turn into a horrid place. But there is also a catch thatthe queen actually might not be dead, but hidden.

It's interesting to see how Emily draws parallels between the life of Faerie and the stories / legends picked up by scholars before, so they could actually track down the queen. This what actually inspired her to change the direction of her interest later in the book to collecting tales (especially while she has a direct source for those).

But I find this book to be very mild, not that I wanted anything too exciting, otherwise I'd have to knock out myself. In general Emily Wilde story is pretty tame, despite the events. All because of it's way of storytelling through journal entries. I don't know why, but even if something happens in the story, you know everything is okay because Emily is all fine and survived it all to write about it. Even if it feels like the stakes may rise, but to me honestly the story always felt like - don't worry, everything will turn out fine. Because of course it does and Em has everything under control. At least she has ideas and she will figure it out.

Anyway, this is how it goes. If you read the story, you know it's all fine.

Back to Emily herself, partially she can be praised for all her bravery and balls of steel for doing many dangerous things or she's plain reckless. But part of me would do without with her monologing how she can't communicate, especially when she has moments of intent in her speech or she can quite well hold herself with those close to her. But because it's a journal it's more told through Em's words instead of being shown, it's just her perspective. But honestly a lot of what she does (if we omit her mentioning her communication skills) is how many of us talk, it's all usual stuff actually. I don't know why this emphasis gets to me every time. But I do appreciate her turn in this book from trying to fit, to returning to herself, though I didn't see it as some mental journey, it just happened.

I'm still happy I finished it.

PS: I think this novel has the bestcover of all three, it has all the trinkets that were present in the book and actually held some significance of sorts, but before reading you have no idea what it is and this is fun.

RATE: 4/5. All three books had 4 stars btw. 

[NOVE] Tomb of the Sun King by Jacquelyn Benson

The worthy continuation.

Respectable lady scholars shouldn’t be dodging evildoers, escaping lost tombs, and chasing down magical artifacts. Archivist and suffragette Ellie Mallory always dreamed of putting her scholarly skills to work in the ancient sands of Egypt. She never imagined she would be doing so in order to save an object of legendary power from a batch of ruthless villains. Racing baddies to an arcanum of Biblical proportions is only one of Ellie’s problems. Her hopelessly academic and perpetually mortified step-brother, Dr. Neil Fairfax, is about to learn that she’s been gallivanting around the globe with his danger-magnet best friend, Adam Bates—the roguish surveyor for whom Ellie harbors increasingly complicated feelings. Add the petite and terrifyingly fearless Constance Tyrrell to the mix, and Ellie either has a crack team of artifact-saving experts to hand… or a recipe for disaster. Together, they’ll need to follow a trail of three-thousand-year-old clues from the necropolis of Saqqara to the temples of Luxor and beyond, where the ruined capital of a heretic pharaoh hides a secret with the potential to upend history. To keep an earth-shattering magic from falling into the wrong hands, Ellie will need to pull out all the stops—even if that means resorting to fisticuffs, ignoring proper archaeological processes… and facing a terrible choice between doing what she knows is right or breaking her own heart.

Raiders of the Arcana. Book 2

This time the book is longer (mostly due to the growing cast of characters), but it doesn't make it less entertaining.

We pick up our journey from where we left it, Ellie and Adam arrive to Egypt in hopes to outmanoeuvre the villains who set their eyes on one of the Biblical famous artifacts - staff of Moses.

So far Ellie and Adam has been doing this "save the world" or at least "save the arcana from the wrong hands" together, but the number of people involved grew rapidly. Constance, Ellie's friend mentioned in the first book is now stationed in Egypt with her father, she'd rather dive into the whirwind of this dangerous adventure she hoped for so long than be reminded each day that she needs to find herself a husband. Neil or Dr. Fairfax is stupefied by the sudden arrival of his baby sister, which basically tore him out of safe and routine life he always preferred. Sayyid, Neil's foreman, but actually a formiddable Egyptian scholar who had no chance of leading the excavation himself due to his origins. Together they track the three-thousand-year-old clue to probably find not only the magical staff that could be a considerable threat, but the key to the truth about one of the most mysterious pharaohs in the history of Egypt that bothered Neil for the past decade.

It's not the end of the cast, but I don't want to spoil anything that came as a surprise to me. It's really no fun to read if you know those things.

As in previous books it actually provides a great deal of historical accuracy along with author's speculation. But author is not the only one with the theories like that, Benson simply sets this theory in stone within the plot of her book. But mixing it all together created quite a believable picture, which I found pretty cool and it kept me so upbeat while reading. Despite all the mysticism.

Maybe for someone who has an extensive knowledge of Egypt's history will laugh at it (at least I haven't seeked for confirmation of this thought of mine), but for lesser knowledgable lot it comes across as pretty decent story.

Plus the style of writing and the pacing make the good combination of rest and adventure, in general I'd divide this book into three parts - arrival, travel, tomb, but don't think that any of these lack some nerve-tickling moments, they just don't share the same intensity with the last part obviously being the most intense. In Acknowledgements Jacquelyn once again mentions the Atwater couple who helped this book to become better, while they helped to beta read it, which I think is wonderful and what many books lack sometimes, a bit more time and a good advice.

The next part, which is obvious is the between-the-lines (not really) commentary about the British Empire involvement in other countries. Britain was not the only one to decide to seemingly ligellay ship off many precious antiques (France, America) or basically the history of another country they actually had no right to in a common sense. The inspiration was drawn from reality, thus we have several characters that share their own fate / story with the reader. It's not a sob story, but the helpless situation these individuals found themselves in. Before the arrival of Adam and Ellie, wich allowed them to do something, although it will forever stay a secret the the outside world.

This comes along with a peppered dynamic chain of events full of adventure and danger.

I love that Benson actually makes the whole thing quite logical with actions and consequences. The characters push the plot and the plot pushes the characters. It's nice to see that everyone conforms to their own individuality, having their own small changes (actually big changes considering their lives in general).

A note to share is that Adam and Ellie share the spotlight with characters like Neil and Contsance a lot, which actually promises something more in the future. Most certainly adventure and who knows even romance (because they do have that vibe, it's funny how Neil is terrified of Connie a bit, but also finds her so beautiful now, while Connie even considered Neil as a prospect lover, before she finds out something about him, like they all do, and changes her mind, but by the end of the book she again turns more positive about Stuffy, this is how eandearingly she calls him, which fits him so well). But I really was up to it, although Connie felt too adventurous in the first book, she still had too little time for us to know her better, but in this book she showcased her bravery and determination. Neil is a contrasting character to her, Stuffy is a perfect nickname for him, he loves his quiet and the dig he did, he is a bit cowardly because of that, which is pretty understandable and very humane. Yet he goes through changes, which do not leave him as some superhero, he's still Stuffy, but he tries to change for better.

As for relationship between Ellie and Adam it becomes the question that keeps hanging between them due to events of this book. Prior they were alone in the jungle. During the journay their affection did not diminish, but now they are among the society and the situation is dangerous to Ellie's reputation. So seemingly they have no other choice but to keep away from each other, because Adam doesn't want Ellie to change her principles about marriage just because their situation "requires" it, but he also doesn't want to hurt her, which leaves them in this dilemma. Their decision is of course at the very end.

But honestly they're so loving and caring.

Oh, the last thing. The most dangerous part of this book is still Jacobs I think. Even if our company found the details on who are at least few hirers behind the scenes and the prostects of it. But in the eyes of Ellie and others Jacobs became the most dangerous individual.

It's actually interesting because Jacobs has his own spot in this book. While we still don't know who he is and what are his origins, we at least now know his goal.

Another point is why I think he's the most formiddable so far, not only his keen intuition on people lying to him or his unyealding determination in his actions as if he was made of steel, but his own words about the people who hired him. Those people can sit in the comfort of their homes, bound by their power and status, but Jacobs feels like he can do anything, literally anything and it's unlikely anything will stop him if he puts his mind on it. I find the way he exists in the story is truly great.

This was such a joyful ride, I wish to write more and in greater detail, but I will leave it for my memory to hold. Although it's unreliable sometimes. 

And onto the next adventure, which comes at the end of this year, who knows exacly when. But I can only say that the next stop is India!

RATE: 5/5. Excellent continuation to the series.

[NOVEL] The Paradise Problem by Christina Lauren

What a breezy novel, indeed perfect for a summer read with all the private island, stunning beaches and crystal clear water, but here we are in February. I actually was panicky and I needed a change of pace, so I just opened thsi one. It was on my TBR for quite some time, but I did not plan to read it, but when I picked it up I simply couldn't put it down (it helped to get away from anxiety), the reading was so fast and I just finished it in a day, which is rare (then returned Tomb of the Sun King by Jaquelyn Benson, second book in the Raiders of Arcana series and forgot to post about the book).

I actually would recommend starting reading it without knowing much, for example, I did not read the summary (it explains a lot, I was happy to be oblivious to some of that), though I will include it as always.

Anna Green thought she was marrying Liam “West” Weston for access to subsidized family housing while at UCLA. She also thought she’d signed divorce papers when the graduation caps were tossed, and they both went on their merry ways.

Three years later, Anna is a starving artist living paycheck to paycheck while West is a Stanford professor. He may be one of four heirs to the Weston Foods conglomerate, but he has little interest in working for the heartless corporation his family built from the ground up. He is interested, however, in his one-hundred-million-dollar inheritance. There’s just one catch.

Due to an antiquated clause in his grandfather’s will, Liam won’t see a penny until he’s been happily married for five years. Just when Liam thinks he’s in the home stretch, pressure mounts from his family to see this mysterious spouse, and he has no choice but to turn to the one person he’s afraid to introduce to his one-percenter parents — his unpolished, not-so-ex-wife.

But in the presence of his family, Liam’s fears quickly shift from whether the feisty, foul-mouthed, paint-splattered Anna can play the part to whether the toxic world of wealth will corrupt someone as pure of heart as his surprisingly grounded and loyal wife. Liam will have to ask himself if the price tag on his flimsy cover story is worth losing true love that sprouted from a lie.

Anna Green is such a random name lol and she is also a painter which is a bit of a biting cliche, so I have no idea if it was intentional, but she is so unhinged. I did not read many of the romance novels obviously and so far I did not meet an FMC who is so unhinged. Although she has a story about herself, which is always a thing I suppose, but she is quite a character. More breezy. Very vocal. More open. Which was actually a nice change.

I don't know what it is, from all the romance books I've picked so far, including few popular authors, I can summarize one thing about all FMCs - they have issues. But these issues feel pressing. It doesn't mean that Anna does not have those, she also has her deal of things, she also can cry and be hurt, but she is a fighter too.

Maybe this is what I liked about her quite a lot. No speech filter, more open and straightforward.

William's character is a bit stereotypical too, all that height, handsomeness and muscles. he is actually a nice guy. Although it makes him sound a bit much the way he is eager to get the rest of the trust fund money, but he has a "nice guy" reason behind it. Tbh it is interesting to watch the balance between them, because you can see his vulnerability despite his looks, while Anna comes off quite supportive and not at all in a lesser position between the two.

This trip has the tropes of forced proximity, like sharing the only bed (heard it's a used cliche a lot), which leaves the two of them living in this bungalow with a lot of open space where they can't hide from each other and because they basically see each other as if they saw each other for the first time, they are also attracted visually. After all they are now more mature and have time to look after each other unlike the time they lived together and were preoccupied with their own thing.

Although they have to play a married couple and it all starts from faking it, but it soon grows into yearning. This trip is short, so in retrospective they went to the last base pretty fast. But what is notable is that they're pretty opened about it and were not burdened to start it. Which some will mark as a typical mistake of characters in such novels, the reader will scream at you - but you will soon realize that you fell in love you dummy! 

Yet that physical closeness also allowed them to find more about each other, which made them care more.

Some may argue that such proximity and atmosphere created the atmosphere for a fast vacational romance, which does not eaqual strong emotional bond good for a future life together and physical attraction / lust don't mean some strong love, you may be right, they may not have enough time to be that deeply attached, this is why I think it is great that a bit of extra was added to explain the aftermath of that vacation.

What makes this book easy to read is that even if it picks up some life problems, it does not dwell too much on it to make a bigger statement. After all the book was obviously intended not to be about those things. The writing style is also quite easy.

RATE: 5/5. Feels I've been giving away 5 star ratings pretty often lately, but actually most of my ratings are viby. I don't take out some common rating systems to rate books. I just give them stars for what they are. This is a quick read with some nice humor, easy on the eyes and does not pretend to be anything bigger and it delivered what it promised.

Heard one of their books is planned to be filmed. I wonder if I should read that book too. may just add it to the TBR list, I have an extensive document with all TBR I collected (not entirely all, but a lot of it), so I can sit on it for some time and later decide if I really want to pick up stuff from it or just leave it.

But with Paradise Problem it became apparent that it's better nto to plan to what read and when. Like I started Cruel is the Light, I didn't like the writing style, I will continue eventually, but it looks like pretty cover and premise but who knows (the rating of this book also continuously dropped during this period). I also picked up Emily Wilde book 3, but honestly I'm not completely excited about it, since it ends up as a cozy read mostly. Then Rebel Witch came out and I loved Heartess Hunter, but I dread to start that book if I'm being honest. You know the feeling when you liked something, but kinda afraid if continuation will be good or not.

[TV Series] The Golden Girls (1985-1992)

I found Golden Girls by accident. It's a pity when I watch YT videos about movies and shows I basically never saw anyone mentioning them, though it's such a funny and witty show. I finished Season 1 yesterday.

The basic premise of the show is we're in Miami and two women, Dorothy and Rose, find Blanche via advertismenet that she has an available room for rent. This is how they come together and become roommates and three women develop inseparable friendship. The three of them are soon joined by Dorothy's mother Sophia, because her retirement home burned down.

They go through different life situations together.

What I really like is that it's all-female cast with age ranging in 50-60'ss. First of all it's hard to see an older cast as main characters nowadays, don't correct me if I'm wrong. And we're talking about women who do not visibly try to look younger, they aged gracefully, unlike what Hollywood likes to push nowadays. And I'm glad not because there is some "girl boss" moment here, since they're single and thriving, on the contrary these three women are now independent, but it does not mean they do not welcome romance in their life, the thing is romance is not everything in their lives.

I don't know who says it jokingly and who means it, but a lot of time you hear from younger people how women reaching their 30's are considered ancient, which is such a toxic thing to say and it's actually sad, because this is how women treat women.

What I like about this show is that these women are no longer young, they share a strong friendship bond, they live and thrive despite their age. It's very uplifting. 

And I love the humor. The era of humor which is not some dumb nonsense or vulgarity. A lot of humor is actually played around and based on the characters themselves.

Dorothy is snarky, Blanche is flirty and Rose is a bit of an airhead. Sophia just says what's on her mind. So a lot of jokes are based on their characters, like Dorothy with her witty comebacks, Dorothy not getting what is meant and Blanche, well, she has a lot to say about men and her own beauty. The background about Sophia is that she had a stroke and now doesn't control herself at all.

(this compilation comes from different season)

Another point I love a lot is FASHION. This show makes me miss the fashion of 80-90's, when things were so colorful and fun. I heard not once the insult of someone not dressing well as "did you steal it from your grandma?" believe me when I say, your grandmas were more stylish than you who look like beggars, while wearing branded clothes.

Anyway, it's a fun show. Highly recommended.

RATE: 10/10 (Season 1).

[NOVEL] First-Time Caller by B.K. Borison

Aiden Valentine has a secret: he's fallen out of love with love. And as the host of Baltimore's romance hotline, that's a bit of a problem. But when a young girl calls in to the station asking for dating advice for her mom, the interview goes viral, thrusting Aiden and Heartstrings into the limelight.

Lucie Stone thought she was doing just fine. She has a good job; an incredible family; and a smart, slightly devious kid. But when all of Baltimore is suddenly scrutinizing her love life-or lack thereof—she begins to question if she's as happy as she thought. Maybe a little more romance wouldn't be such a bad thing.

Everyone wants Lucie to find her happy ending... even the handsome, temperamental man calling the shots. But when sparks start to fly behind the scenes, Lucie must make the final call between the radio-sponsored happily ever after or the man in the headphones next to her.

Heartstrings. Book 1

It's a pretty okay romance. It was me who read it not in the best condition.

Lucie is a single mom with a pretty interesting family situation, the father of her child lives just next door with his husband. She got pregnant early, but she decided to give birth which estranged her and him from their parents. But as who she actually is she didn't want to bind Grayson to herself in a marriage. Girl has her own logic.

Now she's 29 and she seems to have a perfect life in a way. She has her family, she doesn't need much from life and works as a mechanic, until that fateful call to the radio station where she shares her own view on romance.

Maybe as hopeless romantic as she is she wants a bit more from a relationship, some kind of magic and spark. But since she didn't get it from few tries in life she decided she has enough, never realizing that even her own kid wants to see her happy.

The dying radio show called "Heartstrings" (hence the series) received a boost in ratings after that fateful call and the head of it Maggie decided to invite Lucie to co-host on few nights a week.

This is where she and Aiden spent the time together and Aiden was visibly against the whole idea, while Lucie decided to step out of her comfort zone and try.

Some say it's a slow burn but I'd say it's yearning, does not have any vulgar feeling to it too. I find that they felt an instant attraction for each other. Hence their following reaction.

Lucie actually does not know if she's okay for this world as she is, but she has more courage than she shows.

Aiden on the other hand is very defensive towards feelings because of his family situation and how it shaped it emotionally.

In the end Aiden is the one who is there for her most of the time, because he promised he would not let her be hurt and be made fun of.

They pretty openly admit they are attracted to each other and simply flirted all this time, but will this flirting lead them anywhere?

Although Lucie started at wanting some magic and spark, but she found out that being with Aiden in this moment right now is what is fun. She eventually takes a brave step to close the proximity and claim that if he is ready, she will be there waiting for him.

The problem that stumbled Aiden from being opened and honest originates in his fear of loving that became a habit. His mother was diagnosed several times and as a defense mechanism of sorts he distanced himself from his parents, so maybe if he loved them less it would hurt less (which of course never helped). But is it good to continue like that? Although he always repeated that he was not enough for Lucie, but to her he was what she wanted.

And this leads us to the final scene were Lucie is asked to be a temporary host on the radio while Aiden is supposed to come soon, but he calls the radio instead and he bares what he wants to say. "Long-time listener, first-time caller" this is where the title of this book comes from.

So the book has a nice closure with almost twin events, it starts from a call and ends with a call.

Interesting to note that her daughter Maya actually never said she wants a 'daddy', after all she has two dads, but she basically wanted her mother to be happy. This is why this story concentrates mostly on their relationship, instead of Aiden trying to fit in their family. And I think such development is logical, from now on when they're together it is the logical moment for him to start and blend in.

Overall it was a good time. The only point I want to make is that this book feels longer than it should be. Personally I would shorten the contents a bit, because it felt like we're mulling over he same things and repeat ourselves.

Also another note.. I wonder why the one who drew the cover did not bother to actually represent the characters? I mean Aiden is blue-eyed and he almost always wears a sweatshirt (never wore a shirt), Lucie should have brownish hair, despite her freckles, they're faint. Just those details. Also I wonder why they decided to include a telephone when they contacted via a mobile phone. Does it add to the aesthetic?

RATE: 4/5.

[MOVIE] The Fifth Element (1997)

It's like a re-watch week or something, I've been re-watching a lot of movies. Who am I kidding I usually do that a lot.

The Fifth Element in some ways was ahead of its' time by many years. It offers its' own look at the future of the Earth and the danger of total annihilation by pure evil, because the plot centers around a taxi driver Korben Dallas who has to save the world by connecting the stones representing the four elements and a fifth element, which is supposed to be a supreme being, a beautiful woman named Leeloo.

Actually, the movie has this funky feel to it, considering the way it looks. Maybe it's because of the production designs, which sometimes comes off as goofy. But if I think more about it, it actually makes sense at that time something similar could be traced across several movies of different genre. Yet actually it introduced a lot of new ideas too (not mentioning clothing by Gaultier, but some of the small everyday life details in the movie).

And it definitely gave its' own commentary on such things as overpopulation, class difference, ecology, damn even media. Who knew that the character of Ruby Rhod will become reality in modern society. But Tucker played it so well.

The world in the background speaks for itself.

Starting from the one tiny room apartment of Korben that looks claustrophobic, when he is actually an ex-special forces (though probably gave everything to his ex-wife, slipped my mind if it was mentioned). The way he has a full load of guns from attempted robberies. Flying cars that are everywhere with dense traffic whn Korben tries to fly through. Jungle of skyscrapers. No privacy in the face of police (the scene of scanning through the door). The pile of garbage at the airport/spaceport. In stark contrast comes the luxurious spaceship full of fun and leisure where you could see all types of dignitaries and celebs with Korben being one of few "low class" people I suppose.

The only thing about the movie that showcases how old the movie is the best is CGI. That one does look old, but at the time of the release of course it was fantastic.

RATE: 8/10.

[MOVIE] Aladdin (1992)

The song "A whole new world" stuck in my head in the evening, so I re-watched Aladdin.

A classic. Unlike the live adaptations I can re-watch the old animation from time to time. Especially when now everything is almost UHD and you can enjoy such a good quality. I admit I haven't even watched the live adaptation of Aladdin, just visually that looks as abomination and after the Oscars and what Will Smith did I'm just "nah dude". Even if previously I was okay with him (after roles like in Men in Black or Independence Day)..

I must say I miss Robin Williams' voice overs. He could create many characters as a single person. Genie gives this one so much humor.

But one I also appreciate a lot here is Gilbert Gottfried aka the voice of Iago. Hysterical.

I don't remember what my impression was as a kid - maybe wow~. But as an adult I appreciate how beautiful the animation is, how action-packed the sequences are, how everything is concise. There is also a good message about embracing who you are, doing the right thing. Aladdin a good-hearted fellow.

This is what irritates me in live adaptations in general, they try to twist things to be different, but instead twist the logic or characters' motivation, so the overall feeling and meaning are lost. While these stories should be as simple as possible. Simple and educational almost.

Anyway, what funny is after I watched that song stopped haunting me ahaha